Nitin A. Gokhale
Guwahati

AGP’s Prodigal Son: PK Mahanta photo by subhamoy bhattacharjee

Mahanta and Phukan still command enormous goodwill which the present AGP chief, Brindaban Goswami, can’t match

Three years after he was unceremoniously removed from the post of president of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is on a comeback trail. And joining hands with him in what looks like an impossible task to match the ruling Congress in the Assembly elections due any time next year, is Mahanta’s friend-turned-foe-turned-friend Bhrigu Kumar Phukan. The duo, who set up the party in 1985, has been sidelined in the party affairs under current President Brindaban Goswami.

On January 28 when the two leaders appeared at the party office for a ‘chat’ with the members of the steering committee, ostensibly to clarify charges of indiscipline slapped against them, it was clear that they still command enormous goodwill which Goswami finds difficult to match. “No one can think of an AGP without Mahanta. He has nurtured it right from its inception. He is in fact the AGP’s face in the national scenario, so it is natural that his followers line up for him when he makes an appearance after a long gap,” Pranab Goswami, a Mahanta loyalist, remarked even as he watched party workers mob the former CM.

Mahanta, who has had two terms as chief minister (1985-90 and 1996-2001), was forced to step down as party president in the wake of a ‘second marriage’ scandal that hit the headlines immediately after the AGP’s defeat in the 2001 Assembly elections. Phukan, in contrast, has had a topsy-turvy journey. He split the AGP in 1991, returned to it in 1995 only to walk out again and join the PA Sangma-led NCP. In 2004, however, the former No. 2 to Mahanta, both in the government and the party, returned to the AGP and unsuccessfully fought the Guwahati Lok Sabha seat.

Goswami, the education minister in the first Mahanta ministry, was in the meantime made party chief. Although under Goswami’s leadership, the AGP wrested two seats from the Congress in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, he is seen to be incapable of leading the party’s charge against the ruling Congress in the coming state elections. The clamour for Mahanta-Phukan duo to return has therefore been rising over the past few months.

The immediate trigger for last Friday’s meeting was a powwow the two had a couple of weeks ago, setting off speculations that they were about to launch a revolt. “I would never split the AGP,” Mahanta told Tehelka after the meeting with the steering committee. “After all, many of us have founded the party. Only a united AGP is capable of fighting the corrupt and inefficient Congress,” he added. Phukan, who appeared before the committee after Mahanta’s departure from the AGP office, was more aggressive in denying the allegation of anti-party activity. The two leaders are expected to be cleared of the charges and then be given formal responsibility in the coming months to rejuvenate the 20-year-old regional party.